On Friday the 8th, our class went to the Cape Town Stadium to experience one of the great sports of the country- football (soccer for the rest of you Americans). We saw the 8 o’clock game, which was the Cape Town Ajax vs. the Bloem Celtics. Being a Friday night game, we expected the stadium to be pretty full. It was, in fact, the opposite; not even one side of the stadium was filled with spectators.
While we will examine the football game in a couple of different lights, this blog post focuses more on the few but proud who attended the football game. Although there may have been a lack of spectators, there was certainly not a lack of fans. Even though there was less than one sides’ worth of fans, everyone was sitting near each other, promoting a sense of togetherness. Surrounding us were an abundance of energetic Ajax fans, ready to support their team. Without looking at the entire stadium, you would not be able to tell that there was a small turnout, considering how enthusiastic they were. There were flags, jerseys, and the ever-popular vuvuzelas everywhere we turned, reminding us of the pride the city had.
Through our research we found that the majority of the soccer players in South Africa are black. One of the first things we noticed was that almost all of the spectators of the game were black as well. Many brought their children, seeming to expose them to the love of the game and the atmosphere they can hopefully pass on to their children. This is something we learned about in our research of sports in South Africa, so it was interesting to see it pan out here. It also rang true to the sentiments the editor-in-chief of the Cape Argus explained to us, which is that the majority of the country (blacks and coloreds) have always supported the soccer teams in South Africa because they have always been primarily black; it is easy for them to get behind a team that represents the majority of the country accurately. While there were whites in attendance, our observation was that they were mostly tourists, considering they were in larger groups like us and tended to not be as energetic as the blacks in attendance (this would make sense if they weren’t from here since they probably didn’t have as big of a tie to the teams).
Among the energetic fans at the game, we noticed several groups that emerged. The first was a group of Ajax fans behind us further up that had a plentiful amount of flags, apparel, and vuvuzelas. This group was predominately black, much like the rest of the crowd in attendance, and seemed to energize the rest of the crowd by making up chants we could clap or chant along to with them. They kept up their energy the entire game, seeming to keep the crowd pumped with them.
A few sections to our left was a band that was composed of trumpets, trombones, and drums. While they didn’t play the entirety of the game, they could definitely sense when the crowd was losing energy and were there to help them get back into the game. It most certainly got our attention every time they began playing.
Finally, there was a group of Celtics fans that were at the end of the stadium that probably stood out the most to all of us. A large number of them were standing up the entirety of the game and dancing. Not just individually- as an entire group. This huge section of dancers was super intriguing and had a large number of us captivated every time they decided to go into a number. Even though they were for the opposing team, their energy was at the same level of the Ajax fans.
After researching demographics in the sports world in South Africa, it was really interesting to see how the demographics played out in the fans as well. Just as we discovered before we came here that the majority of football players were black on most teams here, it definitely rings true in the fans as well. While it is nice to see that the majority takes such a interest in football, ideally, the whole country should be able to take pride in ALL of their sports teams, black and white. Hopefully this change will come soon.
